Ciboney

Ciboney, also spelled Siboney, Indian people of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. By the time of European contact, they had been driven by their more powerful Taino neighbours to a few isolated locales on western Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and Cuba. The name Ciboney comes from the Arawak term for cave dweller, and many of the Cuban Ciboney appear to have lived in caves at least part of the time. Other typical Ciboney dwelling sites were small offshore islets and swamp hammocks. The linguistic affiliations of the Ciboney are unknown, as are their origins; certain features of Ciboney culture point to Florida, others to Central or South America.

The Ciboney of Cuba and Hispaniola differed greatly from one another in the material base of their cultures. While both were primarily hunters and gatherers, the technology of the Ciboney of Cuba, called variously Cayo Redondo or Guayabo Blanco, was based on shell, while that of the Haitian Ciboney was based on stone. The typical artifact of Cayo Redondo was a roughly triangular shell gouge made from the lip of a Strombus shell, a tool also quite common in sites of the Glades culture in Florida. The Couri style of Haiti, by contrast, was characterized by chipped stone, especially the so-called Couri dagger, flaked on one face and with a flat back. Both groups apparently subsisted primarily on shellfish; some rodent, turtle, and manatee bones have also been found. Settlements were small, comprising one or two families. Within a century after European contact (Christopher Columbus landed in 1492), the Ciboney culture was largely extinct, although self-identifying descendants of the Ciboney survived.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper, Senior Editor.